OKay, I am officially back!

[Rockporter]

Just cannot stay away from all you nice folks here.


I haven't had a garden since the fall of 2014. So far I have texas sweet 1015 onions planted. Leeks and my sour cream and onion chives keep coming back year after year. They die back in winter. I have planted some Homestead heritage, cherry and roma tomatoes. I plan to plant more things but will be seeding those.

I did not do any starts of my own this year because I have been having some health issues, and only now feel like I can do some gardening. I will have to be careful what I do and be slow, but hubby will help me along.

Speaking of him, the one person I can count on in my life, my husband. He is wonderful and built a beautiful trellis for me this weekend, well we both did. We used old wood someone used numerous nails and staples in, so I removed old nails and staples and he did the building. He built it how I had envisioned it, and if I can figure out how to get photos off my phone, and onto the computer, I will post one or two.

I am hoping this year I will be able to handle the onslaught of bugs, mildews and blights that are about to come my way, and get some decent tomatoes. I am hoping this trellis will help me to keep the tomatoes under control and having an ability to get some good airflow around them. I also hope I can have good success at reaching in from front and back to do the work I need to do, while maintaining them. Now I am dreaming of a couple of arch trellises made with cattle panel, so I can rotate my crops around the garden. I think my location is great for that, and I shouldn't have any problems with one trellis shading another. It would be great to make them wide enough to sit down inside and enjoy the shade in the hot summer sun.

Anyway, happy gardening 2017 everyone!

[AlittleSalt]

I am glad you are gardening.

Your husband being the one person you can count on. I understand that. My wife is the same for me, and I am for her.

[MissS]

Welcome back. It's nice to see you posting again. The gardens will be a blessing for your health and peace of mind (well except for the bugs and diseases). It sure is good for the soul and keeps you active so you don't slack off.

I wish you a wonderful gardening year.

[Father'sDaughter]

Good to see you both back here and back in the garden!

[Spartanburg123]

Welcome back! I hope you have a great garden bounty this year!!

Darin

[matereater]

welcome back !

[Sun City Linda]

Glad your back. Earthbox forum has been down for over a week so maybe its gone. I have had health issues also and have tried to grow but for the past couple of years not much to show for it. Hope to stay strong this year! Wishing you a great season!

[peebee]

Rockporter, I've wondering where you were! Good to know you are feeling better now.
Sun City Linda, I hope you will enjoy improved health this year and can grow more.

[Rockporter]

Thanks everyone. It's been a long hard 3 years for sure.

I didn't plant in winter because of two reasons, I had hurt my knee and it was still not healing well. I couldn't stand on it very well and bending was a no go. So, I just decided to wait until I could get it moving. I also had a glaucoma scare, I am still being watched and tested for that. We also had a wedding in California in spring of 2015, so I didn't want to leave a garden in full swing, with nobody to care for it. We were gone about 1 month for a true vacation from here.

I've been having a real hard time breathing, having no energy and just feeling like the crud. Now I already feel bad because of my numerous arthritis issues, so feeling bad wasn't new to me. I just felt worse, dizzy all the time, hard time breathing and no energy. I've gained almost all the weight I lost back, ugh.

Then I had been suffering from plantar fasciitis, which really derailed me and is the biggest reason I gained everything back. I couldn't stand on my feet to cut vegetables, or cook anything. I couldn't walk so badly, I was literally dragging my feet to move, holding onto anything I could and screaming all the way to the bathroom. It was a nightmare. Now, after doing my own therapy I can stand much better and am back into the kitchen for short stints. This has taken well over 1.5 years to get to this point. Then the next thing to derail me.

Well, I finally landed in the ER with the inability to breath at all. Really gasping to get some air, and thought I was having an allergic reaction to some antibiotic I was given for a bad tooth. Still couldn't breath as well as I should have been able to, so went back to the doctor. I had water in my lungs.

It's all been waiting on doctors and appts, and tests from here on out and has taken months. I have been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. I still have more testing. I don't really want this thread to be about my health though, I just want to enjoy the garden and tell you all what I am doing there.

Today I decided to plant some basil and bell pepper seeds in my tomatoes. I planted some flowers to bring the good guys into my garden in hopes of not needing to do anything regarding bugs. Yeah, sure that will work, lol. Oh well, it will be pretty in my garden. I am seriously thinking about building those cattle panel trellis's, so I can rotate my crops. I would also love to sit under the arch when it's covered in vines to watch the bees and feel the breeze in the shade. It would be awesome to enjoy the outdoors in the summertime.

Linda, I'm glad you are feeling better too. I haven't been using my earth boxes as their intended function. I decided I would just start this years garden using them with regular garden mix for square foot gardening and go that route. It's too much work for me to do those anymore, and I don't want to overwhelm my husband with my garden adventures. He helps me so much already, and he works full time too.

My onions, chives and leeks are doing well in there. I am using Mels mix method of mixing different composts with course vermiculite and peat moss. We bought a used electric cement mixer about 3 years ago to do the hardest work for us, and it makes it much easier on both of us to mix all the ingredients together. We finally filled that second raised garden box my husband built about three years ago or so, it will be nice to put that to work for us.

I can say I really do like working with that mix. My tomatoes and flowers are going gangbusters in there too. I have about 12 cherry tomatoes on my baby plants I planted out only three weeks ago, and there are too many flower clusters to count. I am really looking forward to what this effort will bring us this season.

Happy gardening everyone, it's good to see you all here.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Welcome back, Rockporter! I'm new since you left, pleased to meet you. I'll sympathize with you on arthritis, plantar fasciitis, and weight loss issues. (I've just lost a bunch of weight on the drug Saxenda, and am afraid of gaining it back.)

Rockport TX- don't they have a Hummingbird Festival there in Sept? I want to get to one of those someday; it sounds awesome.

Great to hear you're back to gardening, and your cherry toms are doing well. I just put in some cold weather veggies here- iceberg lettuce, red romaine, and black kale. I also have perennial Egyptian walking onions

Hope the gardening helps your health and your health helps your gardening.

Nan

[Rockporter]

Welcome to Tomatoville Nan, it's a great place to be.

Rockport TX does have a hummer bird festival each year. I don't go because of all the walking required and it's still way to hot out for me to handle then. But I hear it's a great festival. I sympathize with you on your health too.

I sure wish I could plant those cold weather veggies right now but we have had a very warm winter here with many days or 80 degrees. I just see instant bolt, lol. Enjoy them.

[Sun City Linda]

Thanks Peebee (Susie?) and Rockporter, whom I'm thinking is Judy but could be wrong, while I was reading your posts I was thinking Cardiomyopathy which was a part of my diagnosis as well. I have Hypertrophic but the breathlessness and lack of energy caught my eye. Glad you are feeling well enough to garden, for that matter glad I am too! And Earthbox responded to my post on their FB page saying they are actively trying to recover the forum so that's good news. Sold to another new owner, maybe two years ago now. It is a lot of work though and I got no hubby to help! I have 5 boxes planted with tomatoes already and just now at my last frost date so feeling pleased about that. Have another 7 or 8 still working on. I also have a lot of containers so I will look up the mix you are making. Heres to a great season!

[Rockporter]

Linda, I hope you continue to do better.

The square foot garden method can be a pain in the rear to find what you are looking for regarding materials. For me, I am rural and I have to drive 20 miles to get coarse vermiculite and cotton burr compost, I get the black cow compost from Lowe's but you need a good mix of single ingredient composts, at least 5 different kinds. I am always looking for something but can't find a lot of really good quality composts like you should be able to out there in California. Try rabbit, horse and goat composts.

Back to Nature cotton burr compost is the one you should be looking for if you can't find one local. It is composted and packaged in West Texas, and doesn't use the chemicals that were used on cotton in the past right before they picked it. This http://www.backtonaturecompost.com/cbc.html is their website, you'll find all you need to know about it. We have cotton gins right here, I could probably get something local from, but they do use chemicals out here, so I avoid it.

Don't buy those potting mixes or composts that have peat mixed in and such, or your soil mix will be all wrong. The peat is pretty easy to find, which you already know. You mix by volume, not weight. So 1/3 Peat + 1/3 Vermiculite + 1/3 compost mixture. Mix all your composts together really well, then combine all ingredients together. So mixing 4 cubic feet of peat to 4 cubic feet of mixed compost and 4 cubic feet of course vermiculite.

So, say you fill one 5 gallon bucket each of compost mixture, peat, and vermiculite. Mix this up really well and that is your soil. Repeat until you have enough for your box. It's great, nice to work with and the plants are loving it. I recommend you get the "All New Square Foot Gardening" book by Mel Bartholomew. He lays it out really nice and it's an easy read.

I will be honest though, vermiculite is very expensive and I have been mixing in 2/3 5 gallon bucket of vermiculite to a full 5 gallon bucket of peat and 5 gallons of my mixed compost. Works really well, but isn't truly considered square foot garden mix because it's not truly mixed as Mel lays it out, lol. The purpose of the vermiculite is to give the soil oxygen and hold water. I'm not having any problem with water retention at all.

I just picked up those 45 gallon containers from Tractor Supply today so I can move my tomatoes from my raised bed into them. They are about 20" tall, so tall enough off the ground for me to sit and plant them/work them.

I have one of these garden stools, and love it. It store it inside, I've had mine at least 6 years or so. It's very comfortable and the perfect height. you can also sit on the end, or sit on the whole thing. I sat on the end when I was removing nails and staples from the wood last weekend. It worked perfectly to have the wood on an upright cinder block in front of me. It wouldn't have worked so well if I had to sit on it like it was a chair, you couldn't straddle the cinder block very well at an angle. Anyway, too much info, lol. Here is the link to the garden stool I use.
http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...ductId=1273791


Basically my garden is all raised bed stuff, I can't get up and off the ground, if I did that, I would just be on the ground, lol.

I got another 4 cubic foot bag of course vermiculite today too, so I can finish mixing the soil and fill the rest of the boxes. Well, since the new 45 gallon containers are going to take much of what we have pre mixed already in my raised garden bed. So, need to refill that one, lol.

I've decided to use my old global buckets for adding flowers and herbs to the garden. I can use my earth boxes with the new soil and plant many good veggies.

Happy gardening.

Linda, one more thing. My EB's sat all this time without a cover on them and grew weeds, lol. I did not remove the old mix that was in it. It was compacted down to about 1/2 the height of the box, I just topped it with the new soil mix and planted onions, leeks and chives in it. They are doing fantastic. So, don't toss out that old mix, you can leave it at the bottom of the box.

[Sun City Linda]

Great info, thanks! I've not changed out my Earthbox planting mix yet and its been 8 years!

[Rockporter]

You are welcome Linda. According to Mel you only need 6" of mix for most vegetables. I on the other hand would never use only 6" of mix, because of my location with the heat and humidity being so high. I need my plants to get the moisture they need throughout the day because of their stress put upon them. Mel says if you want really deep beds you can use a cheaper soil at the bottom and top with his mix. I didn't do that, although it has been expensive to fill my beds, I decided if I have something that really wants to put out the roots I wanted them to find great nutrients all the way down. Not only this, I didn't want to be mixing the bottom with the top if I need to plant way far down. Like when I transplanted the cherry tomatoes their roots were really deep.

My big raised beds my husband built are at least 30" high, so I think I have at least 26" of mix in those. They are 8' long by 3' wide, and I have two of those. My other beds are 4' x 4's about 12" deep, I have two of those as well. The rest are the Earth boxes (11 of those), and I have three 45 gallon containers I got at Tractor supply. Those containers are about 20" high, and oval in shape. I think they are perfect for a couple of tomatoes and a basil with a bell pepper planted in there too. I put them right next to the other oval 45 gallon I got from Tractor Supply, right in front of the new trellis hubby and I built. Anyway, I think you would enjoy using the Mels mix, you won't have to replace it either. Just add a new handful when you pull out a finished plant to fill the hole.

I have found some bat guano (18 miles away), and composted chicken manure (23 miles from home), to enhance my top layers when the plants need a boost, since I can't get all the really great composts out there. I am still looking for some worm casings.

Well, off to transplant some roma's into those new containers. I planted 10 tomato plants into one of my 8' x 3' a couple of weeks ago because we had some major storming coming. I didn't want to hassle with them getting beat up while in those little cups. Boy are they all going gangbusters. So, already moved the cherries over to the first 45 gallon container last week. Now need to move 4 more plants to get all of them under control, lol.



Updating:

Okay, so I went out and lined the new 45 gallon containers with weed cloth, then proceeded to fill them with my soil mix. Hubby drilled holes in the bottom and sides for me last night. I transplanted two roma plants per each, removing the bottom stems to get more roots, and will seed a basil and bell pepper in each one as well. I watered everything in well, then proceeded to clean up my tools and what little mess I made.

All the while when I went out this morning it was 76 degrees out and a nice overcast with 20% chance of rain. So, I enjoyed it a bit cooler without the sun beating down so hotly on me while I worked. All finished, watered all the rest of my garden, filled the holes from where I took the tomato plants from, and put cages on everything. Happy with my accomplishments, I decided I was going to get some pictures. Walked into the house, got phone and walked outside to sprinkling, so took pics as fast as I could and as I walked back into the house it began to rain hard, lol. Perfect timing, the transplants ought to do really well out there. Oh, and it's a cool 77 degrees now, so only one degree up from two hours ago when I started.

Hmm, just checked the containers at Tractor Supply, http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pro...l?cm_vc=-10005

It says they are 40 gallons online, but the tag says 45 gallons. I just went out and measured them. They are 14.5" high, about 28 wide and 42" long. Their measurements are off too, but they are perfect for what I am doing. Strange how I thought they were 20" in height.